MUSIC BITS: The holiday season is always a big time for album releases, and several Tarrant County acts are contributing to the flood. Fort Worth Weekly has a roundup of new music from Collin Herring, Shea Seger, RTB2, and Age of Disinformation.  And while you’re over at fwweekly.com, be sure to read the feature on Grapevine’s Disco:Hate. Among the many interesting things about the man behind the music,  Casey Colby: he actually doesn’t mind disco. And for you SXSW watchers, the first round of bands has been announced. No real major national acts yet, but there are some locals, including Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights (who played last year) and Riverboat Gamblers.

WAY OUT WEST: While waiting for a preview screening of Up in the Air (a love letter to Fort Worth-based American Airlines, among many other things) last night, I finally got around to reading Sunday’s New York Times Travel section. There’s a nice spread in it about Marfa that’s heavy on the eating, kinda light on the art the town is famous for, but still a good read. What caught my attention, though, were the photos accompanying the story. And if you squint, you can see that they were shot by the great Allison V. Smith. Allison’s been more of a fine art photographer of late, but some of you may not know that she’s a pretty good photojournalist, too, serving as a staff photographer at The Dallas Morning News for several years. If you look closely at the lead photo, she’s apparently gotten so good now that she can make a rainbow appear when she needs one.

UNTIL MONDAY: Dearly devoted readers, since KERA is locking up at 2 this afternoon, this will be the last morning roundup until Monday. Is it pathetic that the last item of the traditional, three-nugget roundup is really just a note letting you know we’re taking some time off? Absolutely. But look at it this way: The Monday Morning Roundup should be chock full of local goodness with four days’ worth of stuff to read through between now and then.